Current Giveaways

October 25, 2010

Halloween Spooktacular Giveaway! (Finale)

We have reached our last Halloween giveaway! This was so much fun and cannot wait to start picking winners! I am sure you can't wait either LOL!

For our last post we have authors Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz sharing their thoughts on Halloween with us. :0) Enjoy!

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THE MANY FACES OF HALLOWEEN

By Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz

We love the paranormal! Together, we've written about vampires, demons that can only be killed with compliments, sea monsters, aliens, angels, people with assorted psychic powers, and the apocalypse. Naturally, we both adore Halloween. But when trying to figure out what to write a Halloween blog post about, well, we almost had to throw down. It turns out that while we always think we share all the same tastes, we were tragically wrong in this case. Apparently, we love Halloween for completely different reasons.

Melinda is all about the scares, the screams, the gross and the gore. Laura is all about the fun, the fantasy, the sparkly, and the sexy. (We both enjoy the candy, though. Way too much.) The more we thought about it, the more sense it made. Melinda counts Stephen King among her favorite authors. Laura read one Stephen King short story in high school and never looked back. Melinda still has nightmares about when she saw The Exorcist as a kid. Laura vaguely recalls watching Nightmare on Elm Street at a sleepover party once, but thinks she fell asleep before the end.On Halloween Melinda decorates her yard with skeletal flamingos (formerly pink). Laura has spiders and ghosts, but the spiders are cute and furry, while the ghosts are of the Casper-the-friendly variety.

As a kid, Laura always dressed up as a princess, a butterfly, a fairy, or a bride. Except in high school, where she tended to simply wear pajamas and bunny slippers to class. Melinda preferred going out as some sort of ghoul. She did wear a nightgown once, but only after splashing it with green puke made of corn syrup, food coloring, and flour (The Exorcist made a really big impression).

And the trend has continued into adulthood. We thought about our favorite Halloween memories. Melinda's fave was the year she won Berkley Publishing's costume contest. (She was an editor there at the time.) She dressed up as Carrie, post the prom-night dousing in pig blood. There aren't many costumes that involve more gore. Fake blood was splattered over the silky nightgown that was subbing for a prom dress, spattered over her wrist corsage and tiara, dripping down her face. The top of her head was drenched. It was all very fabulous (in her opinion, not Laura's), and she got to pull out her shooting-psychic-powers-at-you stare, which is definitely something worth seeing. And the best part of being Carrie for a night was when the party was over. She got to (well, had to) reenact the scene from the movie where Carrie washes off the blood after the prom. Watching all the fake blood run down the drain? Unforgettable!

Laura is horrified by even the idea of a costume that would make her walk around with her hair drenched in goo. She sees Halloween as an excuse to look even better than usual. Perhaps her favorite costume ever was Jessica Rabbit, because of the elbow-length gloves (which even Melinda concedes are quite glam) and the fabulous long red hair. Plus, sexy red dress! And it was funny, which is equally important. And her favorite Halloween memory took place in a New York City cab on the way to a party. Laura and her friends were dressed in vintage Star Trek uniforms--you know, short, tight dresses and go-go boots with big hair and retro makeup. They had, of course, phasers (set on stun). At a red light, they spotted a bunch of Klingons on the sidewalk, rolled down the cab windows, and proceeded to have a huge gunfight. Starfleet totally won.

So how could the two of us agree on a reason that Halloween is so awesome and blog-worthy? Um...we couldn't. But it doesn't matter! Because we realized that it's why we're so good at writing the paranormal together. Melinda comes at it from the horror/gore realm--the scary, the spooky, the gross. And Laura comes at it from the sci-fi realm--the action, the sexiness, the otherworldly. Put all those things together and you've got the makings of all kinds of imaginary craziness.

Our conclusion is this: Halloween rocks because it can be fun and grotesque and terrifying and silly. There's something for everyone. And no matter what, there is always candy.

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For more information on Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns check out the links below:

MUCHA GRACIAS to Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz for sharing their thoughts on Halloween with us.

And now for the giveaway....

Melinda Metz was kind enough to donate two copies of her book Echoesto our Halloween Spootacular giveaway. So that means two lucky winners will win a copy of Crave by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz and a Copy of Echoes by Melinda Metz.